


And When Love Speaks...

by Crazy_Fantasy



Category: Servamp (Anime & Manga)
Genre: (it's just rated T because Licht swears a lot in the end), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, M/M, a tiny bit of angst, greed pair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 01:44:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11590416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_Fantasy/pseuds/Crazy_Fantasy
Summary: "And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy with the harmony." (William Shakespeare, "Love's Labour's Lost")





	And When Love Speaks...

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> Just a quick sidenote before reading, this soulmate AU is based on the idea that everyone is born with a timer on their wrist, showing a countdown of years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds (so like 00:00:00:00:00:00 when it's all down to zero) until they see their soulmate for the first time  
> Thanks for checking my oneshot out and I hope you enjoy it!

Hyde sighs as he stares at the ticket in his hand.

He’s heard of the guy, of course. Licht Jekylland Todoroki—the Modern Mozart, how he’s commonly called in the media. A young musical genius that’s up and coming all over the world right now.

Hyde wasn’t ever _that_ interested in music. He prefers theatrical plays, where you’re actually told what the performance is trying to get across. He’s always found it difficult to get that kind of message just by a few tunes varying in pitch and length.

But, his friend’s asked him to go. He purchased the ticket a few months ago but now, something he couldn’t re-schedule to another day came up and now he can’t go. So, as he doesn’t want the ticket to go to waste, he gave it to Hyde. Why exactly has yet to occur to the blond but since his friend asked him to and he has the time, he can’t well say no without a bad conscience.

So, now here he is in the cab driving him to the concert hall, staring at a strip of paper because he can’t actually believe he’s driving to a classical music concert. For free. With no reason. At all.

He sighs. Well, this is just great.

He goes to put the ticket away but halts in his track as his gaze glides over the black numbers on the inside of his arm, incredulous as he reads them.

00:00:00:00:15:57

Hyde needs a moment before he registers what that means. He’s going to meet his soulmate in only the quarter of an hour.

_Oh God._

He can’t do anything but stare. He goes though the sections once more. His years have long since reached zero. He’s noticed that. He’s also noticed that his months have become zero. He hasn’t noticed how his days have stopped counting. Neither has he noticed his hours have done the same. And now there are just minutes left. And just fifteen of them.

Fifteen minutes and he’ll find his soulmate.

Fifteen minutes and he’ll find the person he’s going to spend his life together with.

Fifteen minutes until his life will take a 180 degree turn.

Oh _God._

The rest of the ride and the cab coming to a stop go by in a blur. Hyde walks dazedly towards the entrance of the concert hall, eyes never leaving his arm. He’s pretty sure he paid the cab driver more than he needed to but he doesn’t care. All he can do right now is stare at his clock.

There are only five minutes left now.

Then he’ll meet his soulmate.

His _soulmate_.

He can’t decide whether he's about to piss himself out of nervousness and fear or jump around out of joy.

Probably both.

His eyes shoot up from his clock when the doors open. He fumbles with his ticket as he lines up with the other people, eyes flickering between the door and his arm constantly.

When he’s finally up, he gives the woman his ticket with shaky hands, which he silently curses himself for. He shouldn’t be so nervous, dammit. She spots his arm and gives him an encouraging smile as he goes inside. Which would have been nice of her, Hyde would notice, if he wasn’t currently about to explode from tension.

Two minutes left on his clock.

He walks through the hallway towards the concert hall, nearly bumping into a lot of people as he goes, eyes never leaving his clock.

One minute.

Fifty seconds.

Forty seconds.

Thirty seconds.

He nearly knocks his head into the door, so he looks up to make his way through. His eyes only flicker around but he immediately spots him. Seated on a piano stool in the middle of the stage is the black-haired young man conquering the media over the past few years.

Licht.

Hyde looks back at his clock, wanting to wait until the last moment before looking up to see his soulmate but what he sees makes his mouth go dry.

The numbers are all down to zero. While he stared at the pianist he’s come here to listen to, his clock has stopped counting. His time has reached its limit. While he was looking at Licht. Licht Jekylland Todoroki.

... Is his soulmate?!

 

* * *

 

 

_“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell; though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, yet grace must still look so.”*_

 

* * *

 

 

Hyde hasn’t thought he could ever be moved just by listening to music.

He’s a practical romantic—he likes seeing a deeper meaning in different gestures or words, likes getting swayed away by a world with meaning that doesn’t exist. But, that being said, he’s never seen what’s supposed to be so moving about music. It’s nice to listen to, granted, but he’s never believed that something as simple as music can make people laugh or cry.

It seems his life really is being turned head down, feet up today.

Because when Licht plays the piano, the melody, the harmony, is so beautiful, so clear, and so… so _angelic_ that it makes the whole concert hall tear up. Not one person doesn’t shed a tear at the sweet symphony that young man creates. Including Hyde.

No one has ever been able to move his heart so easily.

So, after the concert, Hyde makes his decision. He'll pay Licht a visit in his room, confront him about being his soulmate and get to know the young pianist that is such a mystery better.

Just getting through to Licht, however, proves to be not as easy as Hyde has planned. He hoped he could sneak in during the autograph session, tell the guy who worked there—Guil, was his name—who’s let him through with that excuse a few times before, that he’s forgotten his ticket and go through without it.

Today, however, Guil isn’t the one in front of the backstage door. And, according to the man who _is_ there,

“There is no autograph session, boy. Licht doesn’t give out autographs.”

“What?” Hyde asks, blinking stupidly.

The guy with the braided hair shrugs. “Been trying to make him do it for a while but he refuses. Give up and go home, kid.”

Times like these are the times when Hyde is glad he knows the structure of the theatre like the back of his hand. So, he leaves the braid-guy standing there, making sure to look disappointed as he left, and makes his way to the bathrooms. From there, he climbs out of the window into the inner yard, grinning to himself. All of the private changing rooms have windows that lead to the inner yard. This is how he’s sneaked a selfie with his favourite performer a year ago.

He goes along the walls, peeking into the rooms through the windows as he does, hoping to see a mop of black hair in one of them. About halfway around the court, he finally spots something that looks fairly familiar facing the wall across from the window, seemingly talking to someone on his cell phone.

Hyde opens the window practically quietly, pulling himself up and into the room with a quiet thud. The pianist seems to have good ears, though, as he immediately halts mid-sentence and turns his head towards Hyde.

A few moments of very awkward eye contact follow.

“Who the fuck are you?” Licht then asks.

“Ah.” Hyde struggles with his sleeve as he tries to pull it up to reveal his clock. His heart is pounding in his chest. This is it. This is his soulmate. And this is going to be the day they start going out. He’s nervous, giddy and scared at the same time. He doesn’t know if he hates it or loves it.

Finally, he manages to get his sleeve out of the way and presents his now still clock to Licht.

The pianist blinks slowly, eyes drifting from Hyde’s face to his arm and back. “…what?”

“Ah, uh… I’m your soulmate!” Hyde calls out, a little too loudly, at least in his own ears, a grin spreading from one ear to the other.

Licht frowns. “My soulmate.”

“Yes!” Hyde replies excitedly.

Licht studies him from head to toe once before looking back into his face. Hyde is still grinning, waiting for the other to crack a smile or at least look surprised or happy. Or change his monotone expression at all.

“No.”

Hyde’s face falls. No? What does he mean, no? Of course he is. His clock has stopped the moment he’s laid his eyes on Licht. Licht is his soulmate, so he has to be Licht’s too, right?

“Now leave,” Licht waves him off, returning his phone to his ear. “Yeah, Mom—”

“AH!” Hyde calls out, startling Licht into silence again.

The raven looks at him incredulously.

“Your, uh, clock.” Hyde points to the black numbers exposed by the rolled-up sleeves of Licht’s dress shirt. “It’s down to zero, too.”

Licht looks at his arm, blinks, and looks back at Hyde. “…so?”

Again, Hyde’s hopes sink. “So… so, my clock is down to zero… and your clock is down to zero…”

“Yeah, so what?” Licht frowns.

“That… I… doesn’t that mean we’re soulmates?” Hyde asks.

“Why would it?” Licht asks back.

“Well… that’s what the clocks are for…” Hyde replies, deflating more and more.

“I don’t know what the fuck you're talking about but you’re annoying, so leave,” Licht says, narrowing his eyes.

“No, no,” Hyde quickly waves his arms in the air. “I came here to tell you I’m your soulmate! I can’t just—”

“You told me,” Licht interrupts him. “Now leave.”

“But—“

“Listen.” Licht finally turns to face Hyde fully. “I don’t care whether I’m your soulmate or whatever. I’m not waiting for someone to come around and give meaning to my life because I’ve already gone ahead and found that in the music I play. If you need to wait for a countdown to end before you can be happy, then I pity you. Go find something else to fill that hole. Because I’m not going to go out with you just because a stupid clock told me to.”

Hyde goes quiet. What is that guy going on about? He hasn’t _waited_ to find happiness. He’s just been happy to finally find his fated someone. Right?

The door opens and the guy with the braid sticks his head in. “Licht, are you—”

He freezes when he spots Hyde and Hyde goes rigid as well. Well, now he’s fucked up.

“SECURITY!”

“NO, WAIT—!!”

 

* * *

 

 

If anything can be said about Hyde, it’s that he doesn’t give up easily.

Well, if you ask anyone else apart from himself the answer will probably tend towards annoying or stupid most of the time but his consistency is surely one of his more prominent traits, too.

According to Hyde.

Either way, Hyde isn’t giving up easily on Licht being his soulmate. He goes to all of his concerts, repeatedly... invading his changing rooms (though, Licht and the braid-guy—Rosen, as Hyde found out—tended to call it ‘breaking in’… they were such drama queens).

But does Licht care? No. It takes him weeks to even remotely remember Hyde at all.

But Hyde has set his resolve and he is not giving up.

“Really?” Ophelia asks, sitting beside him on the university campus. “I would’ve thought you’d given up by now.”

“I would, too,” Hyde sighs. “But he’s my soulmate. That _has_ to mean something, right?”

Ophelia shrugs, sucking on the straw of her strawberry milk. “Maybe it’s one of those cases where he’s your soulmate but you're not his?” she suggests.

“Don’t say that!” Hyde whines.

“Well, it’s a possibility,” Ophelia replies. “You should consider it.”

Hyde sighs again. “It’s not just that he’s refusing to acknowledge me, either. He gives me this look all the time. Like he’s asking me who the fuck I think I am talking to him.”

Ophelia snorts and it sounds half amused and half annoyed, crumpling the small box in her hand until the smiling strawberry on it looks like it’s suffering. “Hyde, no offense, but that doesn’t sound like he’s... your soulmate.”

“Of course he is,” Hyde gives her a confused look. “My clock ran out the second I saw him.”

Ophelia sighs, obviously having something to say but not wanting to. “Just… you might want to consider the possibility, you know?”

Hyde doesn’t reply, instead looks down on the concrete of the university’s campus under his feet. It’s not like he doesn’t know that. It isn’t like he’s forgotten that he’s Ophelia’s soulmate and she’s not his. The only reason he doesn’t feel bad about it is because Ophelia couldn’t care less about this whole soulmate thing.

A small smile creeps onto Hyde’s face. In that respect, she might just be the same as that idiot pianist of a soulmate.

“ _Some cupid kills with arrows, some with traps**_ …” Hyde hums, looking up at the sky. He watches as the clouds move softly with the breeze, changing form constantly yet never losing parts of themselves. William Shakespeare couldn’t have said it better. Hyde admires him for a reason, after all. He knew what he was talking about.

“Hey.”

He snaps out of it when Ophelia knocks her knuckles against his head lightly. He looks over and she smirks up with him with an amused yet knowing smile that she seems to wear too often for Hyde’s liking. “You’re spacing out again, Romeo.”

Hyde huffs a pout, crossing his arms over his chest. She established that nickname for him back when they were kids and he read his first of Shakespeare’s dramas and wouldn’t stop rambling about it. He hasn’t been able to shake it off since. Her reasoning that it fits him because he’s a romantic of the type that would definitely kill himself if his loved one died, well… as much as Hyde tries to deny it; they both know it’s the truth.

But that’s the part about Ophelia that makes him stick around. She knows him better than he knows himself, sometimes even knows what he wants before he can figure it out himself. And the worst part is; she’s always right. There hasn’t been a time when she’s made a wrong assumption about him in all the years he’s known her.

Sometimes it makes him wonder if he really isn’t her soulmate. If his clock hasn’t made a mistake and he’s been hanging around his soulmate without realizing all this time. He’s been so close to telling her that he wants to accept her confession from all those years ago so many times but he’s never mustered up the courage to do so. Honestly, he wonders if he’s just afraid that this time it’ll be the other way around. That this time, he’ll be the one who gets rejected. But then he reminds himself that he’s _her_ soulmate… and she wouldn’t reject her own soulmate, right?

But on the other hand, Ophelia always knows what’s best for him. And Ophelia hasn’t made a move to tell him that she thinks the same way since she told him he was her soulmate when they were six.

And now she tells him that he’s not Licht’s soulmate and for the first time since he saw the pianist, his resolve begins to waver. Ophelia’s always been right about him. She’s always been right about things that concern him so what’s to say she isn’t right about this too? Who’s to say he’s Licht’s soulmate when Licht is acting like he’s air whenever he’s around?

_“It’s a possibility. You should consider it.”_

The words hurt when he recalls them. He wants Licht to be his soulmate. He wants to be _Licht’s_ soulmate. When he heard the pianist play, he’s been moved in a way he hasn’t been since he read Shakespeare for the first time.

Everyone the media has interviewed about Licht’s concerts says the same thing; that it was like an angel had descended from heaven to grace the sinners on earth with his judgement and truly; Hyde can only agree when he hears it now.

The pianist has brought a twist to Hyde’s life that the blond hadn’t expected. Maybe that’s why he was so ambitious about getting Licht’s attention. Maybe it’s really only that and when he snaps out of that phase, he’s going to realize that he actually hates Licht’s behaviour.

“H—e—y,” Ophelia called out waving her hand in front of Hyde’s face. “Earth to Hyde?”

He blinks at her like he’s just woken up from a bad dream and she laughs at him, making him feel twisted between laughing along and pouting.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you think this hard about something in your entire life,” Ophelia comments and Hyde feels himself blush for a reason he can’t pinpoint somehow. This time Ophelia’s the one who looks at the sky before continuing to speak. “As I said, it’s just a possibility. I don’t know him so I can’t tell you what kind of person he is. I just think you should talk to him about all of this. Tell him what you think and… listen to what he feels.”

Hyde sighs. He knows she’s right and that’s what he should have done in the first place. But somehow he just forgets about everything else when he ends up arguing with Licht… which happens just about every time he speaks to the young pianist.

Before Hyde can set a clear resolve, Ophelia stands up. “Our next lecture starts in a minute. Let’s go.”

She extends his hand and Hyde let’s himself get pulled up from the ground. He can think about what to do next time he sees Licht another time.

 

* * *

 

 

As it turns out, there won’t be a next time of seeing Licht.

The pianist was only in England for a few concerts, after all, and he’ll be leaving after the next one which is on the very day Hyde finds out about it.

He hears from his friend; the one he got the ticket it all started with from in the first place. He’s rendered speechless when he tells him. He can’t even ask if there’s any chance to go; even though he’s pretty sure there isn’t, anyway, because Licht’s concerts are always sold out the day after the tickets go on sale.

He even has to sit out when his theatre group starts practicing because he’s so shocked he can’t even remember his lines.

He’s not going to see Licht again. He had the chance to have his soulmate and he… let it slip away. Just like that.

How could he have been so ignorant?

How could he not have seen this coming?

Now… he doesn’t have another choice but to give up, right…?

 

* * *

 

 

_“He’s far gone, far gone; and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this.”***_

* * *

 

 

Two days pass and Hyde somewhat settles with the fact that he missed his chance for a soulmate.

Well. He doesn’t s _ettle_ with it, per se, but he manages to suppress it so much that he can find the resolve in him to re-enter his social life and join his friends from the theatre group, including Ophelia, at the karaoke bar.

He wonders when he’s last been there (since it’s not the most common place to go in England but his theatre group has always chosen the weirdest places to meet up so he isn’t really surprised by the suggestion) and remembers that it must have been when he was around ten years old and his and Ophelia’s family went there together.

Now he’s sitting in the booth beside Ophelia and someone’s boyfriend named Marc and feels slightly uncomfortable while two of his guy friends shout more than sing something that remotely resembles the lyrics to ‘Can you feel the love tonight’.

He honestly doesn’t think he can sit through that so he excuses himself to Ophelia who shoots him a worried glance but lets him go as he squeezes by Marc and his girlfriend to leave the rented room of the karaoke bar.

He makes his way over to the actual bar in the foyer, fully intent on hammering himself because he doesn’t think he can survive another round of ‘who can sing the cheesiest duet in the worst possible way’ without being completely out of it.

He stops, though, when he sees a silhouette outside of the frosted glass door that is too familiar to him to ignore.

But… no, that can’t be. Licht had his last concert two days ago and was supposed to leave the country afterwards. There is no was the raven is squatting on the side of the road beside the karaoke bar Hyde coincidentally goes to on the very same evening.

Though those are his thoughts, he finds himself walking towards the door like he’s a crazy, lovesick idiot… which he probably is, anyway.

The doors slide open and he steps out, cool air making his scarf flutter to the side but he doesn’t even notice as he stares at the sight of Licht _bloody_ Jekylland Todoroki kneeling on the concrete of the pavement petting what looks like a stray kitten.

Of course, Licht immediately notices someone is watching him and his head snaps up, the glare that Hyde is only too familiar with replacing the adoring expression the pianist had previously worn.

Sensing the change in the air around them, the kitten jumps up and runs away immediately. Licht looks disappointed for a second before fixing Hyde with a glare that manages to make the blond very nearly piss himself.

Licht stands and walks over to Hyde, his hands now shoved into the pockets of his black hoodie. “You didn’t see anything,” he growls and Hyde jumps.

“Y-yes…!”

Licht’s glare has him pinned for a few more seconds before the raven turns around and begins to walk back to the entrance of the karaoke bar.

Finally snapping out of the initial shock over actually finding Licht here and the immediate follow-up of the pianist’s ice cold glare, Hyde grabs onto Licht’s elbow. “Wait!”

Licht turns his head. “What?” he snaps, looking more than a little pissed.

“I… Listen, I really need to talk to you,” Hyde blurts out, remembering the shock of hearing that Licht was leaving before he had a chance to even get to know the pianist… no, his _soulmate_ better.

“I know you don’t… believe in this or anything but you’re still my soulmate.” He probably sounds desperate by this point but he’ll be _damned_ if he gives up after all of that. “I know you probably don’t even remember my name anymore, too, but I don’t care. Please. Please give me a chance. Give me a chance to get to know you better, at least. You don’t have to… accept being my soulmate but I want to at least get to know you before you leave!” Hyde looks down, for some reason afraid of seeing Licht’s expression. “I don’t know anything about you apart from that your piano play is amazing. I want to know more than that. I want to know more about my soulmate. Is that too much to ask?”  
Silence hangs in between them heavy like a cloud of fog that won’t go away before Licht breathes it away with new words before the raven finally, _finally_ speaks.

“Yes,” he says, and Hyde’s heartbeat stops. He looks up to see Licht scowling at him, just like he always does when Hyde wants to talk to him and it’s so cold that it makes Hyde’s grip falter.

Licht leaves, and doesn’t turn around once.

Hyde doesn’t think he’s ever felt more terrible in his entire life as he eventually returns into the karaoke bar. Was this how Ophelia had felt when he rejected her back then?

“He isn’t trying to be mean, you know?”

Hyde looks up when someone suddenly talks to him, gaze falling onto another familiar person.

“Rosen?”

Rosen smiles from the bar and pats the seat beside him. Hyde hesitates but gives in anyway, sitting down beside the braided man. “You mean Licht?”

Rosen nods and takes a sip of the cocktail in his hand. “I came over to look for Licht after he vanished suddenly. Since the doors were open I overheard your conversation.”

Hyde nods, not finding the strength in him to be shocked or insulted or anything similar. “What do you mean when you say that?” he asks, referring to the words Rosen has greeted him with.

Rosen shrugs, swirling his drink in his hand. “Just what I said. He’s not trying to be mean.”

Hyde frowns. “Then what is he trying to do? Am I so repulsive that he _has_ to glare at me like that?”

“It’s because you’re talking about fate the whole time,” Rosen replies and for the first time, Hyde properly looks at him, frowning lightly. “Licht is where he is now because of hard work and dedication. He doesn’t like when people refer to his skills as talent or destiny or anything like that. He doesn’t think highly of things like that. On the contrary. He believes in effort more than anything else.” Hyde watches as he finishes of his drink and sets the glass down on the counter. “It’s because you reason everything you say with being soulmates that he doesn’t like it and that he rejects it. You’ve said that you want to get to know your soulmate better but not that you want to get to know _Licht_ better.”

“But there’s no difference in that,” Hyde protests, frown deepening. “Licht _is_ my soulmate.”

“Licht is Licht,” Rosen clarified, standing up from his seat. “The question is if you want to get to know him because he’s your soulmate, or if you want to get to know him because he’s Licht.” He pulls out a card and hands it to Hyde who stares dumbly at the numbers written down on it. “If you’ve made up your mind, feel free to call. We’re staying in England for three more days.”

 

* * *

 

 

“So what are you going to do now?”

Ophelia is walking home with Hyde after university the next day.

Hyde isn’t sure how to answer. He’s tired because he hasn’t really slept last night and still has to think about what Rosen said to him. He was a romantic. He believed in fate and things like that. If Licht didn’t… everything Hyde had said to him when they, well, met was basically invalid to him.

It felt like he was thrown back to square one.

Ophelia sighs when he doesn’t give her an answer. “At least you know what went wrong now. You’ve got his number and three days to decide. It’s not the end yet.”

Hyde keeps his eyes on the concrete, guilt rushing through him as he remembers the hurt of being rejected so openly by Licht.

“I’m sorry.”

Ophelia stops as he says that, making him turn around to her only to be greeted with a flick to his forehead. He flinches away, rubbing the spot. “Hey…!” he pouts.

“What are you apologizing for _now_ , idiot?” Ophelia asks, that smirk on her face again, and somehow she knows exactly what he’s talking about even though he hasn’t said it. “Even if there were anything to forgive, I’d have forgiven you long ago, Romeo.”

Hyde blinks at her before he sighs with a resigned smile on his face. He should have known she would answer like this. “Yeah.”

“And now,” she continues and shoves him forward, and he hears her emotions in her voice, a laugh and a sob at the same time, “go and catch yourself a soulmate.”

 

* * *

 

 

_“Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, take him, and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine, and all the world will be in love with night, and pay no worship to the garish of the sun.”****_

 

* * *

 

 

Rosen is the one who arranges the meeting with Licht.

When Hyde arrives at the Regent’s park, the raven is already there, scowling like he wanted to be anywhere rather but here with Hyde.

Hyde does his best to make something out of the situation. He shows Licht around the park, goes into a café with him, cracks jokes and asks Licht about himself. But the pianist is nothing if not stubborn. He replies with curt answers, doesn’t laugh at Hyde’s jokes but rather scowls and kicks him when he does tell one and doesn’t seem interested in the park or café either.

Hyde has never been more unsure of what he’s supposed to do. He tried to get through to Licht about soulmates. He tried to get through to him with just walking around and talking about whatever. He doesn’t even know how to keep the conversation alive. Well. Not that Licht is contributing to it anyway.

He wants to get to know Licht. As a person. Not as his soulmate but as Licht. But Licht doesn’t _let_ him.

Hyde sighs and eventually stops talking. If Licht doesn’t want to do this, there’s no sense in trying. He can’t get to know him if he doesn’t open up a little.

Suddenly, a question crosses his mind. One that’s been bothering him for a long time now.

“Why did you say no back then?”

Licht looks up and frowns at him. “What?”  
“When I told you I’m your soulmate,” Hyde clarifies, keeping his gaze on the ground. “You just said no. Why?”

“I told you, I’m not letting a stupid clock tell me who I—”

“Not that,” Hyde shakes his head. “I don’t mean that. You denied that you had a soulmate. That’s not because you don’t want to listen to what the clock tells you.”

Once more in the time he’s known Licht, silence hangs in the air thickly. This time, it feels like an eternity before Licht breaks it.

“I don’t have a soulmate.”

Hyde frowned, now finally looking up at Licht only to find that the other averted his gaze. “Of course you do. You have a clock, too, I saw it.”  
Licht shakes his head, his bangs obscuring his eyes so Hyde can’t figure out his expression. “I have it but it never showed a countdown. It was on zero since the day I was born. They said maybe it was one of the doctors or nurses who were there but they took it back immediately afterwards since my clock would still have shown signs of a countdown but it was like this the whole time.”

Hyde stared at Licht in disbelief. He’d heard of this but hadn’t thought it actually existed. “A… malfunctioning clock…”

“That’s what they call it.” Licht shrugs, like it’s no big deal. Though, for him, it might not be. Since he doesn’t believe in fate anyway.

“You’re not… sad about it?” he asks cautiously.

“I accepted it. No use fretting about something I can’t change anyway. Besides, as long as I can play the piano, I’m fine.”

They walk on in silence for a while. It’s the first time Licht has actually told him something about himself and Hyde doesn’t want to say something that might make the pianist close up again.

“Isn’t lonely?” Hyde asks quietly. The words just slip out, like they have a mind of their own.

Licht doesn’t reply; only shrugs again.

Hyde bites down on his lower lip. He’d just gotten Licht to open up, and now he was just going back to being silent again?

He sighs. This isn’t going to be of any use, after all. He stops, and Licht turns around to him.

“What is it?” he asks, sounding annoyed.

“If you’re not going to talk to me, I’m rather going to go home,” Hyde replies. “You’re my soulmate but… I get that I’m not yours now. I’m sorry I’ve tried to force something on you that you just don’t have.”

“…what the hell?” Licht hisses and Hyde flinches lightly.

“I’m doing you a favour,” he replies, frowning. “You’re the one that’s constantly annoyed with me and wants me to go away, right?! I’m only doing what you want—”

“Who said that’s what I want?!” Licht is suddenly shouting but this is the first time he’s not raising his voice to insult him, and Hyde still jumps but it also makes him _listen_. Licht is saying something with an entirely different meaning from what he was acting like before and it leaves Hyde frozen in place, unable to get out an answer before Licht continues. “You fucking selfish, stupid Hyde! Who the fuck said I think like that, huh?!”

Now Hyde blurts out an answer, desperate to defend himself. “ _You’re_ the one who said they don’t have a soul—”

“ _So what_?!”  Licht growls, completely ignoring how many strange looks they’re getting. “Do I have to have a soulmate to fucking like you?!”

Hyde feels like his brain is unable to comprehend the meaning of those words and Licht’s harsh voice together. “You— what are you—”

“I fucking care about you!” Licht shouts, so loud that anyone in a one kilometre radius must’ve heard it. “When you’re near me my heart goes crazy and it’s hard to breathe and I don’t know how to deal with it so I call you names and kick you and shove you away! But you just don’t give up and I don’t know what to do with this feeling anymore!” He breathes in, deep and quick, before letting the air out again in a whoosh like he’s hyperventilating. “I’ve never felt like this, like someone’s presence messes up my head and I hate it! I fucking hate it and now you’re suddenly saying you’re leaving and I hate that even more! So don’t you fucking dare to say something like that when that I feel like this is entirely your fault, shitty Hyde!”

He stands there, panting from the intensity of his outburst, looking at Hyde like he’s angry and scared at the same time and it makes Hyde want to hug him.

Finally, Licht can’t seem to take the blond’s silence anymore. “Say something!”

Instead of replying verbally, Hyde takes a step forward, crossing the distance that separates them and pulls Licht into a tight hug.

The raven immediately struggles, trying to shove Hyde away and kicking him in the shin repeatedly. “Let me go you fucking shit rat!”

Hyde is aware they’re making a scene but right now, he can’t care less. Licht just confessed to him. Even though half of what he said were insults and swears, he confessed to Hyde. Even though he said he didn’t have a soulmate, he _confessed to Hyde_.

Hyde chuckles softly against the fabric of Licht’s hoodie. “ _God has given you one face, and you make yourself another…*****_ ”

“Huh?!” Licht growls. “What are you talking about, shitty Hyde?! Stop spitting out nonsense and let me go!”

“No,” Hyde replies, squeezing Licht tightly. “I won’t let you go.”

 

* * *

 

 

In this world, it is belief that God has given each human a soulmate.

Each human has a counterpart that they’re destined to be with. But because the humans had no way of telling who this destined counterpart was, they were given a countdown. A countdown to the first meeting with their soulmate.

Some people find their soulmate and get to be happy. Some people find their soulmate, only to find out that their soulmate’s soulmate is someone else. Some people never meet with their soulmate. And some people simply don’t have one.

Hyde has always believed in the fate of finding a soulmate. He’s encountered all kinds of situations. Being someone’s soulmate but having another one himself, only to know that soulmate of his didn’t have a soulmate to begin with.

But he has also learned that destiny isn’t what determines a soulmate. It’s faith and dedication, hard work and emotion. Licht has taught him that.

Truly, if Hyde hadn’t received that ticket for that concert, if he hadn’t seen Licht that evening, how much would have gone different? If he hadn’t found Licht outside of the karaoke bar that he hadn’t even been sure he wanted to go to, how much wouldn’t have played out? If Licht hadn’t opened up to him after all… how much would have changed?

Hyde doesn’t know to this day. He doesn’t want to know, either. Because Licht taught him that it isn’t fate that determines one’s future.

_“And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.”******_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> The quotes are all from Shakespeare's dramas (in order):  
> * "Macbeth"  
> ** "Much Ado About Nothing"  
> *** "Hamlet"  
> **** "Romeo and Juliet"  
> ***** "Hamlet"  
> ****** "Love's Labour's Lost"
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!  
> Find me on tumblr: [the1crazyfantasy](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/the1crazyfantasy)


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